Vyne is a distance selling pharmacy and dispensing appliance contractor, and is a brand of the company Optimum Medical Solutions Ltd. For the purposes of this agreement, when ‘we’ or 'Vyne' is stated, this refers to Optimum Medical Solutions Ltd.
Our pharmacists and the Vyne team are members of your healthcare team. We aim to provide you with the highest quality of healthcare and therefore we need to keep records about you, your health and the care we have provided or plan to provide to you.
This Policy explains when and why we collect personal information, how we use it, the conditions under which we may disclose it to others and how we keep it secure. This covers both online and offline data collection activities.
We may change this Policy from time to time so please check this page occasionally to ensure that you’re happy with any changes. By using our website, you’re agreeing to be bound by this Privacy Policy.
If you have any questions about our Privacy Policy then please contact hello@vyne.co.uk or call 0344 225 1519 and we will be more than happy to assist you.
For more information on using the Vyne service, please read our full Terms & Conditions.
How do we collect information from you?
We collect information about you when you use our website, at events or conferences, via our Customer Care team, via the NHS, through social media or other online/offline methods. Here are some examples of when we may collect data from you: when you sign up to the Vyne service using our website, when you contact us to make an enquiry, when we meet you at an event or when you sign up to receive updates from us.
Please note that we may combine information that we receive from different methods together (for example information that you provide by filling in an online form with information provided to our customer service team).
What type of information is collected from you?
The personal information we collect might include your name, address, email address, your telephone number, IP address and information regarding what pages are accessed and when.
If you have used the website to sign up to receive your prescriptions through the Vyne prescription service, we will also collect your date of birth, NHS number, your address, the name of your GP and the name of your GP surgery, the address of your GP surgery and the telephone number of your GP surgery along with details of the medication or appliance which you require, other details and notes about your health and medical treatment, information relevant to your continued care from other people who care for you and know you well, such as other health professionals and relatives; and any other services we provide to you, for example, a flu vaccination.
We will also ask for your permission to access your Summary Care Record (SCR) upon your registration with the service.
SCR is an NHS electronic record used to support patient care. It provides authorised health care professionals with faster, secure access to information about you when you need care.
This record includes your contact details, NHS number, date of birth, medications and allergies. We ask for this access because our pharmacists may need to refer to your SCR if you need urgent treatment or medication out of hours, or in other emergency situations where your pharmacist would normally need to speak with your GP but cannot do so.
Please note you can opt-out of giving us access to your SCR at any time. The pharmacist will always ask you before accessing your SCR if they feel it is necessary, except if they are unable to communicate with you and they believe it’s in your best interests to look at your record.
Only the pharmacist directly involved in your care is allowed to access the SCR.
If you pay for your prescriptions, we will also contact you to take payment however your card information is not held by us, it is collected by our third-party payment processors who specialise in the secure online capture and processing of credit/debit transactions as further explained below.
We also use an NHS England service called the Personal Demographic Service (PDS).
If you are receiving care from a health or care organisation, that organisation may share your NHS number with other organisations providing your care. This is so that the health and care organisations are using the same number to identify you whilst providing your care. By using the same number the health and care organisations can work together more closely to improve your care and support.
Your NHS number is accessed through an NHS England service called the Personal Demographic Service (PDS). A health or care organisation sends basic information such as your name, address and date of birth to the PDS in order to find your NHS number. Once retrieved from the PDS, the NHS number is stored in our case management system. These data are retained in line with our record retention policies and in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018, Government record retention regulations and best practice. Further information is available via. hello@vyne.co.uk.
We will share information only to provide health and care professionals directly involved in your care access to the most up-to-date information about you. Access to information is strictly controlled, based on the role of the professional, and where the user has a direct care relationship with you.
The use of joined up information across health and social care brings many benefits. One specific example where this will be the case is the discharge of patients into social care. Delays in discharge (commonly known as bed blocking) can occur because details of social care involvement are not readily available to the staff on the hospital ward. The hospital does not know who to contact to discuss the ongoing care of a patient. The linking of social care and health information via the NHS number will help hospital staff quickly identify if social care support is already in place and who the most appropriate contact is. Ongoing care can be planned earlier in the process, because hospital and care staff will know who to talk to.
You have the right to object to the processing of your NHS number in this way. This will not stop you from receiving care, but will result in the benefits outlined above not being realised. To help you decide, we will discuss with you how this may affect our ability to provide you with care, and any other options that you have.
If you wish to opt-out from the use of your NHS number in this way, you can contact us by phoning 0344 225 1519.or by emailing hello@vyne.co.uk
Please note that the above list of information is not exhaustive.
Information about other people
If you provide information to us about any person other than yourself (such as a patient under your care or a family member you care for), you confirm that you have made that person aware of how we may collect, use and disclose their information, the reason you have provided it, how they can contact us, the terms of this policy and that they have consented to such collection, use and disclosure.
How is your information used?
We process your personal data, which includes information from your prescriptions and any other pharmacy and health care services we provide to you for the purposes of:
Your care – providing pharmacy services and care to you and sharing your information with your GP and others in the wider NHS, as appropriate;
Our payments – sharing your information with the NHS Business Services Authority, others in the wider NHS, and sometimes Local Authorities, and only relevant information to those external to the NHS who negotiate and check the accuracy of our payments; and,
Management – sharing only relevant information with the NHS Business Services Authority and others in the wider NHS, and sometimes Local Authorities; as well as those external to the NHS who ensure we maintain appropriate professional and service standards and that your declarations and ours are accurate.
Here are some other examples of how your information may be used:
- Sign you up to the Vyne service.
- Request a prescription on your behalf from your GP surgery.
- Request up to date records on you from the NHS PDS.
- Contact you to remind you to place a re-order for your prescription medication or appliances.
- Answer an enquiry that you have submitted.
- Process orders that you have submitted.
- Seek your views or comments on the services we provide.
- Send you communications and updates which you have requested or that may be of interest to you. These may include information about our products and/ or services.
- Notify you of changes to our services.
- Contact you to conduct a customer satisfaction survey or for research purposes.
Your personal information is processed when it is in our legitimate interest to do so and where your data protection rights are not compromised. For example, we have a legitimate interest in raising awareness of our products and services through appropriate advertising and marketing.
We will also process your personal information in order to comply with applicable laws and protect our legitimate business interests and legal rights, including, but not limited to, use in connection with legal claims, compliance, and regulatory purposes.
We review our retention periods for personal information on a regular basis and we will hold your personal information on our systems only for as long as deemed necessary or until you request deletion or restriction (unless there is a legal or regulatory reason to keep the information for longer).
If you would like to object to us processing your personal information (for example you no longer wish to receive marketing communications) then you have the right to object to such processing. You can change your mind about your marketing preferences at any time by emailing hello@vyne.co.uk or calling 0344 225 1519.
Who has access to your information?
We will not share your personal data with third parties for marketing purposes.
Third-Party Service Providers working on our behalf - We may pass your information to our third-party service providers, agents subcontractors and other associated organisations for the purposes of completing tasks and providing services to you on our behalf (for example to process orders through Vyne and send you mailings). These third parties have been carefully selected and we disclose only the personal information that is necessary to deliver the service. Please be reassured that we will not release your information to third parties beyond those working on behalf of Optimum Medical for them to use for their own direct marketing purposes, unless you have requested us to do so, or we are required to do so by law, for example, by a court order or for the purposes of prevention of fraud or other crime.
When you’re placing your prescription order through Vyne and you pay for your prescriptions, your payment is processed by a third-party payment processor, who specialises in the secure online capture and processing of credit/debit card transactions. If you have any questions regarding secure transactions, please contact us.
Other third parties who we may share your data with include postal services and couriers.
We may transfer your personal information to a third party as part of a sale of some or all of our business and assets to any third party or as part of any business restructuring or reorganisation, or if we’re under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation or to enforce or apply our terms of use or to protect the rights, property or safety of our customers. However, we will take steps with the aim of ensuring that your privacy rights continue to be protected.
How you can access and update your information
The accuracy of your information is important to us.
If you would like to update some of your personal information with us (for example if you have changed your email address, telephone number or address) please email us at hello@vyne.co.uk and one of the team will be more than happy to update our system.
Please contact hello@vyne.co.uk in order to request a copy of the information which Optimum Medical hold about you. Please be aware that we may charge £10 for information requests to cover our costs in providing you with details of the information we hold about you. You may be required to submit proof of identity to access this.
What security measures are in place to protect my personal data?
When you give us personal information, we take steps to ensure that it’s treated securely.
Customers can be reassured that any payment details are processed by a third-party payment processor, who specialises in the secure online capture and processing of credit/debit card transactions. If you have any questions regarding secure transactions, please contact us.
SSL is also active on the Vyne website to ensure that data passed between the web server and browser remains private.
Unless mentioned, other non-sensitive details are transmitted normally over the internet, and this can never be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of any information that you transmit to us, and you do so at your own risk.
Once we receive your information, we make our best effort to ensure its security on our systems through information being handled only on a ‘need-to-know’ basis.
Your rights
You have the right to confidentiality under the General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018 and the common law duty of confidence.
We also comply with the NHS Code of Practice on Confidential Information and pharmacists have a requirement under their professional standards to keep records about you confidential, secure and accurate.
All of our staff contracts of employment contain a requirement to keep patient information confidential.
You may choose to opt-out of the NHS using your data for planning and research purposes – please ask for details.
Links to other websites
Our website may contain links to other websites run by other organisations. This privacy policy applies only to our website, so we encourage you to read the privacy statements on the other websites that you visit. We are not responsible for the privacy policies and practices of other sites even if you access them using links from our website.
In addition, if you visit our website as a result of clicking a link in a third-party site, we are not responsible for the privacy policies and practices of the owners and operators of that third-party site and we recommend that you check the policy of that third-party site.
16 or under
We want to protect the privacy of children aged 16 or under. If you are aged 16 or under, please get your parent/guardian’s permission beforehand whenever you provide us with personal information.
Transferring your information outside of Europe
As part of the services offered to you through this website, the information which you provide to us may be transferred to countries outside the European Union (“EU”). By way of example, this may happen if any of our servers are from time to time located in a country outside of the EU. These countries may not have similar data protection laws to the UK. By submitting your personal data, you’re agreeing to this transfer, storing or processing. If we transfer your information outside of the EU in this way, we will take steps to ensure that appropriate security measures are taken with the aim of ensuring that your privacy rights continue to be protected as outlined in this Policy.
Review of this policy
We keep this policy under regular review. This Privacy Policy was last updated in March 2024.
Contact us
For more information about this Privacy Policy or if you have any related questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us using the details below. If you have an unresolved complaint, you also have a right to contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
| Data Controller | Contact Details |
| Optimum Medical | +44(0) 845 643 5479 enquiries@optimummedical.co.uk Optimum Medical Tennant Hall, Blenheim Grove, Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS2 9ET, UK |
